In John’s gospel we find Jesus doing the first extraordinary thing of his ministry, his first miracle. This is a miracle that has a few stumped as it involves the manufacture of wine from water. I get the distinct view that many would not really approve. But this miracle is not just about taking something at it most base being water and turning it into wine this is about much more. So let’s spend some time exploring what this is about.
• This miracle, where did it occur?
• At a wedding, there is some thought that the wedding was a family wedding and that it was likely for one of Jesus cousins. There is a gospel that is outside the new testament that says that the groom was the son of one of Mary’s sisters
• It happened in a small town in Cana in the region of Galilee. I guess John noted the bit about it being in Galilee, as there was also a town called Cana, in Coelo-Syria. This Galilean village of Cana was just down the road from Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown
• So we have a time of celebration, funnily enough most likely on a Wednesday, as that is the day that weddings of those being married for the first time took place. So unless it was a second marriage, Wednesday is likely the day when Jesus first public miracle occured.
Why did it occur?
• Well this is interesting. If Jesus turned up at the wedding with his new picked disciples and at a minimum there would have been five of them there, it’s likely that his students, put a bit of a strain on the arrangements for the wedding, the old unexpected guests scenario. Imagine that you are putting on a diner party and five extras turn up, it’s a bit more than a couple of extra spuds in the pot to make sure things go smoothly
• This is not to say that they were chewing through the supplies at such a rate as to be drunk. In their society drunkenness was a disgrace. Wine was according to the historians always watered down and was two parts wine to three of water
• Mary came to Jesus and basically requested his help. It’s thought that being a family wedding, that Mary may have had some responsibility for the catering and with his bringing the disciples he had a bit of responsibility himself
4) An interesting point to note
• The jars were huge, these were around twenty gallons or nearly 76 litres per jar times six what’s that 456litres almost exactly two full baths filled to the brim
Well about all these points you may be thinking, so what?
First things first, this was the first of Jesus miracles recorded in the scriptures, very early in his ministry, well at least early in his ministry with the disciples. We get an understanding here that Mary knew that Jesus was capable of such things. With the way that Mary approached Jesus and the way that she told the servants at the time to “do whatever he tells you to do”, you sort of get the idea that Mary had seen Jesus take the ordinary and make it into the extraordinary before this day. Mary knew what her son was capable of. As a result of the miracles John records, “Jesus glory was revealed and the disciples put their faith in him.”
There are a couple of interesting points: “do whatever he tells you to do” and he takes the ordinary and makes it into the extraordinary. Now if all Christians lived our lives on the first of those points if we did what Jesus told us to do, I firmly believe that a whole lot more of God’s will would be being done on earth as it is in Heaven than is currently being done. We might even realise that part of the Lord’s Prayer where we see God’s kingdom come and his will done here on Earth.
There’s an interesting question; do you “do as Jesus tells you to do”, do you know what he is telling you to do? How versed in scripture are you, do you seek to live by the words of Jesus, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit or are you just sort of fluffing around the edges of living for Christ? Please don’t think that that is a judgemental question, that’s between you and Him.
But,
This has an interesting possibility for outcomes, the truth is that wherever Jesus is, be it in your heart, your life or mine he takes the ordinary and does extraordinary things. That kind of signs and wonders stuff.
For some reason, he heals, he empowers, he releases, he comforts, he befriends, he makes lives fruitful where previously they were waste grounds, where lives were laid waste by a world and an enemy who is out to kill, rob and destroy. Jesus does extra ordinary things in lives where those living them respond and do as he asks them to do.
During the week I have been looking at a book by John Larsson where he called Spiritual breakthrough where he talks about Samuel Logan Brengle.
In his recalling Brengle, Larsson talks of how at the age of twenty-five, Brengle was at a seminary training to be a minister but he was troubled. He says, “He had also been increasingly troubled with the way he seemed always to oppose what he felt were God’s plans for his life. If God wanted one thing Brengle wanted the other. By nature he was an ambitious orator, eager to impress the world. But the Spirit [God’s Holy Spirit] seemed to have other ideas. On this point, as with so many others, young Brengle was at odds with God.”
“The lack of spiritual power was something that troubled Sam deeply. Not only was he defeated by the tempter far too frequently, but waves of doubt would wash over him, sometimes almost smothering him completely. Some days he found it well-neigh impossible to believe in God at all. “
Who was Samuel Logan Brengle? This man came to be probably after William and Catherine Booth probably the best known Salvationist of his time. What was it that took a struggling Christian and changed him to be a hero of the faith? How did the ordinary become extraordinary?
He went to visit one of his professors and made this statement “If what I have experienced of God, of abundant life is all there is to Christianity, then all is a cruel mockery.”
Larsson goes onto say how the Professor then opened his New Testament and they looked at some passages which “speak of life in all its fullness for the believer” and that “a new hope was born in Sam’s heart that evening.”
But wait there’s more!
He struggled for days, for weeks he “’searched the scriptures, ransacked his heart, cried to God almost day and night.’ Then at nine o’clock in the morning it happens. A great sense of peace flows over his soul:”
What Samuel Brengle was encountering as the Spirit of Christ blessed him was an experience of God that was far from ordinary, in that it was poured out from heaven, why because he sought after it, and why did he seek after it? Because he knew there was more to Jesus than what he had seen or encountered prior to this. When we read the scriptures they are full of miracles, full of life changing encounters with Jesus, trust me these things occur today!
A little like Mary in this description of the wedding we’ve looked at, she knew that there was more to Jesus. As the servants did as Jesus told them to do, the ordinary could become the extraordinary, not only extraordinary but extraordinary in abundance. More was supplied than could ever be used at that one occasion.
This is the point: that as we do as Jesus asks us; ordinary lives, ordinary situations, ordinary conversations become extraordinary as they take on an eternal significance. Are you ready are you willing to live in that place of responding to Jesus, are you ready for the miracles that will follow? Are you ready to see the extraordinary happen as you do as Jesus asks you to do?
